02. CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 2
What it is to “enter into temptation” — Not barely being tempted — Not to be conquered by it — To fall into it — The force of that expression — Things required for entering into temptation — Satan or lust that is more than ordinarily importunate — The soul’s entanglement — Seasons of such entanglements revealed — The “hour of temptation,” in Revelation 3:10, what it is — How any temptation comes to its hour — How it may be known when its hour has come — The means of prevention prescribed by our Savior — Of watching, and what is intended by it — Of prayer.
II. Having shown what temptation is, I come secondly to manifest what it means to enter into temptation.
1. This is not merely to be tempted. It is impossible for us to be so freed from temptation that we are not tempted at all. While Satan continues in his power and malice, while the world and lust exist, we shall be tempted. “Christ,” says one, “was made like us, that he might be tempted; and we are tempted that we may be made like Christ.” Temptation in general comprehends our whole warfare — just as our Savior calls the time of his ministry the time of his “temptations,” Luke 22:28. We have no promise that we will not be tempted at all; nor are we to pray for an absolute freedom from temptations, because we have no such promise of being heard in this. The direction we have for our prayers is, “Lead us not into temptation,” Matthew 6:13; it is “entering into temptation” that we are to pray against. We may be tempted, and yet not to enter into temptation. So that —
2. Something more is intended by this expression than the ordinary work of Satan and our own lusts, which will be sure to tempt us every day. There is something signal in this entering into temptation, which is not the saints’ daily work. It is something that befalls them specifically in reference to seduction to sin, on one account or another, by way of allurement or fright.
3. It is not to be conquered by a temptation that is opposed, nor to fall down under it, nor to commit the sin or evil that we are tempted to, nor to omit the duties that are opposed to it. A man may “enter into temptation,” and yet not fall under temptation.
God can make a way for a man to escape;1 Corinthians 10:13 when he is in it, God can break the snare, tread down Satan, and make the soul more than a conqueror,Romans 8:37 even though it has entered into temptation. Christ entered into it, but he was not in the least foiled by it. But —
4. It is, as the apostle expresses it in 1 Timothy 6:9, “to fall into temptation,”14 as a man falls into a pit or a deep place where there are traps or snares with which he is entangled; the man is not quickly killed and destroyed, but he is entangled and detained — he does not know how to get free or to be at liberty. So it is expressed again to the same purpose in 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you;” that is, to be taken by a temptation and to be tangled with it, held in its cords, not finding at present a way to escape. From there, says Peter, 2 Peter 2:9, “The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations.” They are entangled with them; God knows how to deliver them out of them. When we allow a temptation to enter into us, then we “enter into temptation.” While it knocks at the door, we are at liberty. But when any temptation comes in and parleys with the heart, reasons with the mind, entices and allures the affections, whether a long or a short time, whether it does this insensibly and imperceptibly, or the soul takes notice of it, we “enter into temptation.” So then, for our entering into temptation, it is required: —
(1.) That by some advantage, or on some occasion, Satan is more earnest than ordinarily in his solicitations to sin, whether by frights or allurements, by persecutions or seductions, by himself or by others. Or it may be that some lust or corruption agitates more than ordinarily within us, by Satan’s instigation and the advantages of outward objects that provoke us (as in prosperity), or terrify us (as in trouble). This requires a special acting of the author and principles of temptation.
(2.) That the heart is so far entangled with it as to be made to dispute and argue in its own defense; and yet it is not wholly able to eject or push out the poison and leaven that have been injected; but it is surprised, however little off its watch, into an entanglement that is not easily avoided: so that the soul may cry, and pray, and cry again, and yet not be delivered — just as Paul “beseeched the Lord” three times to remove his temptation, and did not prevail. The entanglement continues. And this usually falls out in one of these two seasons: —
[1.] When Satan, by the permission of God, for ends best known to himself, has gotten some unique advantage against the soul — as in the case of Peter, Satan sought to winnow him, and prevailed.Luke 22:31
[2.] When a man’s lusts and corruptions meet with unusually provoking objects and occasions, through the condition of life in which a man finds himself, with its circumstances — as it was with David: about both of these afterward. In this state, a man has entered into temptation; and this is called the “hour of temptation,” Revelation 3:10 — the season in which it grows to a head: the discovery of which will give further light into the present inquiry about what it means to “enter into temptation;” for when the hour of temptation has come upon us, we have entered into it. Every great and pressing temptation has its hour: a season in which it grows to a head, in which it is most vigorous, active, operative, and prevalent. It may be long in rising, it may be long in urging, more or less; but it has a season in which it has a dangerous hour, from the conjunction of other occurrences, such as those mentioned, outward or inward. And then, for the most part, men enter into it.
Hence that very temptation which at one time had little or no power over a man — he could despise it, scorn its motions, and easily resist it — at another time, quite bears him away before it. It has gotten new strength and efficacy from other circumstances and occurrences, or the man himself is enervated and weakened: the hour has come, he has entered into it, and it prevails. David probably had temptations to adultery or murder before, in his younger days, as he had in the case of Nabal; but the hour of temptation had not come, it did not have its advantages about it, and so David escaped until afterward. Let men look for it who are exposed to temptations, as who is not? They will have a season in which their solicitations to sin will be more urgent, their reasonings more plausible, pretences more glorious, hopes of recovery more apparent, opportunities broader and more open, the doors of evil made more beautiful than they have ever been. Blessed is he who is prepared for such a season; without such preparation, there is no escaping. As I said, this is the first thing required to enter into temptation; if we stay here, we are safe.
Before I descend to other particulars, having now entered upon it, I will show in general —
1st. How or by what means commonly any temptation attains its hour;
2dly. How we may know when any temptation has come to its high noon, and is in its hour.
1st. It does the first by several ways: —
(1st.) By long solicitations that cause the mind to frequently converse with the evil solicited; this begets extenuating thoughts of it. If it makes this process, then it is coming towards its hour. It may be that when it first began to press upon the soul, the soul was shocked by the ugly appearance of what it aimed at, and cried, “Am I a dog?” 2Kng 8:13 If this indignation is not daily heightened, but the soul, by conversing with the evil, begins to grow familiar with it, as it were, so as not to be startled as formerly, but is rather inclined to cry, “Is it not a little one?” then the temptation is coming towards its high noon. Lust has then enticed and entangled, and it is ready to “conceive,” James 1:15 — more about this afterward, in our inquiry as to how we may know whether we have entered into temptation or not; our present inquest is about the hour and power of temptation itself.
(2dly.) When it has prevailed on others, and the soul is not filled with dislike and abhorrence of them and their ways, nor with pity and prayer for their deliverance. This proves an advantage to it, and raises it towards its height. When that temptation which has possessed and prevailed with many, sets upon anyone at the same time, it has gained so great and so many advantages over him by it, that it is surely growing towards its hour. Prevailing with others is a means to give it its hour against us. The falling off of Hymeneus and Philetus is said to “overthrow the faith of some,” 2 Timothy 2:17-18.
(3dly.) By complicating itself with many considerations that perhaps are not absolutely evil. So the temptation of the Galatians to fall from the purity of the gospel, was complicated by freedom from persecution, through union and consent with the Jews. Things were pleaded in it that were good in themselves, and gave life to the temptation itself. But I will not now insist on the several advantages that any temptation has to heighten and greaten itself, to make itself prevalent and effectual, with the contribution that it receives for this purpose from various circumstances, opportunities, specious pleas and pretences, necessities for doing what cannot be done without responding to the temptation, and the like; because I must speak to some of them afterward.
2dly. For the second, it may be known whether it is in its hour —
(1st.) By its restless urgency and arguing. When a temptation is in its hour, it is restless; it is the time of battle, and it gives the soul no rest. Satan sees his advantage, considers his conjunction of forces, and knows that he must now prevail or be hopeless forever. Here are opportunities, here are advantages, here are specious pleas and pretences; some ground has already been gained by former arguings; here are extenuations of the evil, hopes of pardon by later endeavors — all are in readiness: if he can do nothing now, Satan must sit down lost in his undertakings. Thus when he had all things ready against Christ, he made it the “hour of darkness.” When a temptation discovers “mille nocendi artes,”15 it presses within by imaginations and reasonings, and without by solicitations, advantages, and opportunities, then the soul may know that its hour has come — and the glory of God, with its own welfare, depends on the soul’s behavior in this trial; as we will see in the particular cases following.
(2dly.) When it makes a conjunction of frights and allurements, these two comprise the whole force of temptation. When both are brought together, temptation is in its hour.16 In David’s case, as to the murder of Uriah, there was both the fear of his revenge on his wife (and possibly on himself), and fear at least of the publication of his sin; and there was the allurement of his present enjoyment of Bathsheba whom he lusted after. Men are sometimes carried into sin by love for it, and they continue in sin by fear of what will ensue from it. But in any case, where these two meet, something allures us, something frightens us, and the reasonings that run between them are ready to entangle us — then is the hour of temptation. This then, is to “enter into temptation;” this is the “hour” of it, of which more will be said in the process of our discourse.
III. There are two means of prevention prescribed by our Savior:— 1. “Watch;” 2. “Pray.”
1. Watch. The first is a general expression by no means limited to its native signification of waking from sleep; to watch means to be on our guard, as much as it means to take heed, or to consider all ways and means by which an enemy may approach us: so the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 16:13. This is what it means to “watch” in this business, or to “stand fast in the faith” as good soldiers, or to “quit17 ourselves like men.” It is as the same as to “take heed,” 18 or to look to ourselves, as our Savior often expressed it; so it is in Revelation 3:2.19 What is pressed on us in this word, is a universal carefulness and diligence, exercising itself in and by all the ways and means prescribed by God, over our hearts and ways, over the baits and methods of Satan, over the occasions and advantages of sin in the world, so that we will not be entangled by them.
2. Pray. For the second direction, of prayer, I do not need to address it. The duty and its concerns are known to all.
I will only add that these two means, watch and pray, comprise the whole endeavor of faith for the soul’s preservation from temptation.